deed often fin; but they are not the fervants of fin. Whofo are fuch are none of Chrift's, but they ferve the devil and their lufts. They fin against the gofpel-remedy, going on in a state of unbelief and impenitency. They are not only infected with the plague of fin, but they flight the Phyfician with his remedies, namely, his blood and Spirit; they will not have this man to reign over them, Luke, xix. 14. Sin reigns in them like a king; they readily obey it in the lufts thereof," Rom. vi. 16. and fairly yield themselves to it. They are in the fnare of the devil, and are taken captive by him at his will. Do not think you can be fervants of God, who are thus fituated. No man can ferve two mafters.

Laftly, Thofe who make the Lord's service but their by-hand work, not their chief employ. These are religion's chance-cuftomers, who will never enrich themselves with it. And such are these who never make religion their predominant concern. The chief ftream of their care and anxiety runs in another channel than the grand inquiry, What shall I do to be faved? The things of time lie nearest their heart, not the matters of eternity.-Those who follow religion no farther than their other ends will allow of, who make it yield to their temporal interefts, and embrace it only when thofe do not interfere with it, like the allowance Pharaoh made for religion, by calling idleness the fpring of it, Exod. v. 17.-Those who confine their religion to their religious duties, and do not weave it into the whole of their conversation. Suppofe one to be very exact in a due perform. ance of fecret and family-duties; yet if he do not walk with God in the interval of duties, and carry his religion through his worldly bufinefs,

God's

God's fervice is not his business.-I would now

improve this fubject,

2. In an ufe of trial.

You may and should try yourselves, whether you be the Lord's or not. If you can say, It is God whom I ferve,' ye may fay, 'It is God's, whofe I am.' If religion be your bufinefs, you are God's fervants, and he will own you to be so. A fervant of God moves two fteps, by which he advances beyond others.

(1.) He ferves God, and fo goes beyond the profane careless generation in the world, who mind nothing but the world, the profits and pleafures which are in it: Phil. iii. 19. Whofe end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their fhame, and who mind earthly things." As for the fervice of God, they are free of it, they are fons of Belial, and go without a yoke; they are the ferpent's feed, on their belly they go, and duft is their only meat; the duties of religion they make no conscience of.

(2.) He makes God's fervice his bufinefs, and fo goes beyond the formalift, who ferves God, but makes not God's fervice his chief work. The hy pocrite has always one thing, which goes above all other things with him; but that is the world, or fome one luft or other, not the one thing needful, which is the chief thing the fervant of God is ever in queft of.

We have heard already the marks of a perfon who makes religion his bufinefs. Try yourselves by thefe, whether God's fervice be your grand object in the world, and if you serve him with the whole man &c. as defcribed in the fecond head. --- I come now, 3. To an use of exhortation.-I exhort you to evidence yourselves to be the Lord's fervants, Hh3

by

by ferving him. And with this defign I befeech you,

(1.) To enter to his fervice, and serve him. Serve him in your falvation and generation work, in external and internal service, in stated and continual fervice, in doing or fuffering fervice, in ordinary and extraordinary fervice. Put your hand and heart to the feveral pieces of service to which he calls you. And I would recommend in this cafe to you,

[.] Be attentive to your Mafter's orders, and labour to know his mind, as to what may be your duty: Pfal. cxxiii. 2. "Behold, as the eyes of fervants look unto the hand of their mafters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, fo our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us." Confult his word, which contains his orders to his fervants, and read the Bible as the book of your inftructions. Take the providential hints of duty he gives you; for he has faid, Pfal. xxxii. 8. " I will inftruct thee, and teach thee in the way which throu shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye." Be always willing to know his will, and make application to him by. prayer, for the discovery of it in particular cafes, efpecially fuch as are difficult; do nothing with a doubting confcience.

[2.] Be willing fervants, not refractory and wiiful. Follow the example of Abraham, who obeyed, and went out, not knowing whether he went, Heb. xi. 8. The Mafter's orders being known, do not difpute them, but readily obey them. Choose not the work you will do, whether it be fuffering or doing work, whatever the burden be, which he lays on you, bow your fhoulders to bear it; the crofs he lays down, do you be ready

to

to take it up. and us to obey.

For it becomes him to command,

9.

[3] Weary not of your work: James, i. 4. "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." However hard you apprehend your task to be, give not way to wearying of it: Gal. vi. "And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due feafon we fhall reap, if we faint not." We should think all light while we are out of hell. Impatience betrays us into the hands of the adversary, who is ready to offer his hellish help to those who are weary of the talk God has laid on them; of which we have dreadful inftances, which may make all of us tremble, and refolve through grace to bear till himself give deliverance.

[4] When you are checked for your mismanagements, or corrected on account of them, learn this property of a good fervant, not to answer again, Titus, ii. 9. Murmuring under the rebukes of providence, is very unbecoming, and highly provoking in God's fight: Lam. iii. 39. "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punithment of his fins ?" They who enter into the family of God, muft not think it ftrange that. they have to fubmit to the discipline of the house.. -I would exhort you,

(2.) To hold by his fervice, as the great bufinefs which you have to do in the world. Never give it over, but pursue it as the grand business of your life, for doing which you were fent into the world. You have many things to do: But this is the one thing above all other things, O! give it the preference in your hearts and lives. Never reckon that your other business goes well, when this does not; nor ill, when this goes well. Hold on it, till death loofe you, and you have accom

plished,

plifhed, as an hireling, your days. As to this I would recommend to you,

[1] Serve him honeftly and uprightly: Jofh. xxiv. 14. "Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and ferve him in fincerity and in truth." Let him be your only Lord and Mafter; and while you profefs to ferve God, give not a fecret-service to any idol; for there is no hiding the matter from your heavenly Mafter. You are in God's account,

what you are inwardly in heart.

will.

to serve him for nought.

[2.] Serve him chearfully with heart and goodHe is the best of mafters, and defires none To be heartless in his fervice, as if it were a drudgery, is very difpleafing to him: Deut. xxviii. 47. 43. "Becaufe thou fervedft not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladnefs of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore fhalt thou ferve thine enemies which the Lord fhall fend against thee in hunger and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have deftroyed thee."

[3] Serve him fervently and zealously: Rom. xii. 11. "Not flothful in bufinefs; fervent in fpirit, ferving the Lord." Our God is the living God, and he requires his fervants to be lively, their hearts stirring within them in his fervice. The greatest love which ever appeared being fhewed by our Lord, this doubtlefs requires fuch

a return.

[4] Serve him diligently and laboriously: Acts, xxvi. 7. "Unto which hope, our twelve tribes, inftantly ferving God day and night, hope to come. Why should we grudge pains for him, who thought not his own life too much for us? The fervants of fin and Satan are indefatigable, alas! that the fervants of God fhould be fo floth

ful.